On the other pages of our site you have already seen a couple examples of coffeehouses portrayed in visual work. Perhaps one of the most famous pictorial satirist, William Hogarth, created many printed works in his life time depicting life in London. Hogarth's father opened up a Latin-speaking coffee house which perhaps inspried him to depict coffee houses in his art work (Wikipedia). To the right is one of his engravings, Morning. In the background is Tom King's Coffee House. It is said that this print attributed to the closing of this coffee house (Niemeyer). Below is Midnight. This engraving is said to be set in St. John's Coffee House. Some coffee houses served alcohol and this is one of these, as this engraving shows different stages of drunkenness. While Hogarth denied that any of these were portraits of particular people, there are several that people seemed to recognize such as the tobacconist, John Harris, the man raising his glass in the back and placing another wig upon the head of the parson (Wallach).

"Morning", (Niemeyer, website)

Thomas Jordan composed a song called Triumphs of London that illustrates the manners of the times and the type of conversation that could be found within a coffee house such as Lloyd's.

Triumphs of London, 1675

You that delight in wit and mirth,
And love to hear such news
That come from all parts of the earth,
Turks, Dutch, and Danes, and Jews:
I'll send ye to the rendezvous,
Where it is smoaking new;
Go hear it at a coffee-house,
It cannot but be true.

For the rest of the lyrics to this song click here.

Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, wrote Coffee Cantata in 1732 to be performed at the Zimmerman's Coffee House. It was intended to be an ode to coffee as well as a critique on the movement in Germany to keep women from drinking coffee (Iconoweb) To see the lyrics in full and to hear some sound files click here--->Coffee Cantata

Alexander Pope extract from: The Rape of the Locke

For lo! the board with cups and spoon is crown'd,
The berries crackle, and the mills turn round;
On shining altars of Japan they raise
The silver lamp; the fiery spirits blaze:
From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide,
While China's earth receives the smoaking tide:
At once they gratify their scent and taste,
And frequent cups prolong the rich repast.
Strait hover round the Fair her airy band;
Some, as she sipp'd, the fuming liquor fann'd,
Some o'er her lap their careful plumes display'd,
Trembling, and conscious of the rich brocade.
Coffee (which make the politician wise,
And see thro' all things with his half-shut eyes)
Sent up in vapours to the Baron's brain,
New stratagems, the radiant Lock to gain.

(Ellis)

Jonathan Swift: Ballad on the South Sea Scheme

There is a gulf, where thousands fell,
Here all the bold adventurers came,
A narrow sound, though deep as hell,
'Change alley is the dreadful name.

Subscribers here by thousands float,
And jostle one another down,
Each paddling in his leaky boat,
And here they fish for gold and drown.

Now buried in the depths below,
Now mounted up to heaven again,
They reel and stagger to and fro,
At their wits' end, like drunken men.

Meantime secure on Garway cliffs,
A savage race, by shipwrecks fed,
Lie waiting for the founder'd skiffs,
And strip the bodies of the dead.

(Timbs)